Sunday, February 24, 2019

Welcome J. Scott Coatsworth to Sunday Spotlight! He's sharing a bit from his new release...

Ithani

Oberon Cycle, 3

J Scott Coatsman

Publisher: Dreamspinner

Release Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Format: Paperback, eBook

Word Count: 97K

Cover Artist: Anna Sikorska

Time is running out.

After saving the world twice, Xander, Jameson and friends plunge headlong into a new crisis. The ithani--the aliens who broke the world--have reawakened from their hundred millennia-long slumber. When Xander and Jameson disappear in a flash, an already fractured world is thrown into chaos.

The ithani plans, laid a hundred thousand years before, are finally coming to pass, and they threaten all life on Erro. Venin and Alix go on a desperate search for their missing and find more than they bargained for. And Quince, Robin and Jessa discover a secret as old as the skythane themselves.

Will alien technology, unexpected help from the distant past, destiny and some good old-fashioned firepower be enough to defeat an enemy with the power to split a world? The final battle of the epic science fiction adventure that began in Skythane will decide the fate of lander and skythane alike. And in the north, the ithani rise….

Series Blurb:

Oberon is one of the natural wonders of the Universe - a half planet that shouldn’t exist, at least according to the laws of nature.

Oberon is also a nest of secrets. The Skythane - the first human colonists of Oberon - keep some of them, and so do the “landers” who work for OberCorp, the company that is exploiting the planet for its natural resources.

Now Oberon is in danger. A solar flare threatens to end most life on the planet, but an ancient prophecy leads Quince, Xander, Jameson and a small group of landers and skythane on an epic quest to save the planet - and unravel its secrets along the way.

Other challenges await on the horizon, for the world, and its inhabitants. Will they find the answers they need, and their way to each other, in time?

Genres: sci fi, space opera

Pairings: Various queer characters

Necessary to Read Previous Books: Yes

Excerpt:

Venin stood under the dome of the chapel, the waters of the Orn rushing past the small island to crash over the edge of the crater rim, where they fell a thousand meters to the broken city of Errian below.

The Erriani chapel was different from what he was used to back home. The Gaelani chapel in Gaelan had sat at the top of a tall pillar of stone, open to the night sky, a wide space of grass and trees that intertwined in a natural dome through which moonlight filtered down to make dappled shadows on the ground.

This chapel, instead, was a wonder of streaming sunlight, the columns a polished eggshell marble with glimmering seams of gold. Red creeper vines climbed up the columns, festooned with clusters of yellow flowers that gave off a sweet scent.

Both were bright and airy, but the Erriani chapel lay under a dome supported by fluted marble columns, a painted arch of daytime sky and the rose-colored sun blazing overhead.

The last time he’d gone to chapel had been with Tazim, before his untimely death.

Long before the troubles that roiled the world now.

Something drew him back. A need to reconnect with his past. To bridge the gap between then and now, between who he was and who he had become. Taz would have liked this place.

The chapel here had survived the attack, while much of Errian had not. The city below was a jumble of broken corrinder, the multistory plants that were the main building stock for the city. They would grow again, but the sight of the city’s beautiful white towers laid low struck him to the core.

So had Gaelan looked, after the flood.

Venin turned back to the chapel and unlaced his boots, baring his muscular calves before he approached the fountain that splashed at its center. The cool flagstone beneath his feet sent a shiver up his spine, and green moss filled the gaps between the stones.

Some builder whose name was lost to time had tapped into the river itself to make the fountain run, and the water leapt into the air with a manic energy around the golden statue of Erro, before falling back down to the pool.

Venin knelt at the fountain’s edge on one of the well-worn pads, laid his hands in the shallow water, and let his wings rest over himself, making a private place to pray.

Erro and Gael, spare us from danger and lift us up into the sky with your powerful wings.He gave Erro deference, being that this was his chapel, but he hoped Gael would hear him too. The god of his own people had been known to intervene in mortal affairs before, and if what Quince had told them about these ithaniwas true, they would need all the help they could get.

Venin’s wings warmed.

He looked up in astonishment to see the statue of Erro giving off an intense golden glow. His mouth dropped open, and he stood and stared at its beautiful male curves and muscles. Maybe the gods were answering him.

Venin reached up and touched the statue’s outstretched hand. The shock knocked him backward onto his ass, and he hit the ground hard, slamming into one of the marble columns.

Venin groaned, stunned, and reached back to feel his wings and spine. He seemed to be in one piece.

Taz would have laughed his ass off at the whole thing.

After a moment he sat up cautiously. He wrapped his arms around his legs and stared up at the statue, his chin on his knees.

The glow was gone.

Did I imagine it?He stood and felt the back of his head. A lump was already forming there. That’s gonna leave a mark.

Something had changed. Venin didn’t know what yet, but he was sure of that much.

He pulled his boots back on and laced them up. With one last suspicious glare at the statue, he turned and stepped out of the chapel, taking a deep breath of the moisture-laden air.

Scott lives between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up, he wondered where the people like him were.

He decided it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He seeks to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction reflecitng their own reality.

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Welcome Catherine Lievens to Sunday Spotlight! She's here to share a bit from her new release Like Smoke (Vikings, Book 1)

***

Smoke can infiltrate even the best closed-off room, just like love.

Trygve is used to being on his own. His wife rejected him when he became a draugr around the year 800, and he hasn’t trusted anyone but his best friend, Thorvald, since then. He lives and works alone, and he has no intentions on changing that. Then he meets Isaac. Isaac’s life has been rotten—he was kicked out by his parents when he was sixteen, he was kidnapped from the streets at twenty, and he spent the last eight years chained to a wall and being abused. So when a tall blond man, appears out of thin air and kills the man who’s been torturing Isaac for so long, he begs for death—or to be taken away. Trygve knows he should dump Isaac in a hospital and go back to his solitary life, but Isaac needs help, and for some reason, he seems to trust Trygve, so Trygve lets him stay with him. Neither of them expects their unlikely friendship will become more, and they take things slowly, for both their sakes. But someone is after Isaac, and Trygve knows he will do anything to protect the first person he’s loved in more than a thousand years. Even if that means killing people he’s not being paid to kill.

Excerpt:
The door opened just as Tryg finished shifting. He reached for his gun and got it out just as a man walked out of what Tryg realized was the bathroom. Tryg didn’t notice much else about the place, though, because his attention was all on the man.
He shouldn’t have been there. Everything Tryg had found had indicated Galveston lived alone. The only other people in the house should have been the cook and the guards. So who was this man, and why was he naked and chained to the wall?
He was pretty—gorgeous, even. His dark hair was probably brown when it wasn’t damp, and it was already starting to curl again. His skin was too pale, but rather than making him look sickly, it made him appear ethereal. He was thin, though not excessively so, but Tryg could see scars on his skin, scars that shouldn’t have been there. There were cuts down the inside of his forearms, the most obvious ones being the ones that slashed his wrists right in the middle.
Then there was the chain. It ended hooked on the collar the man wore—a dog collar, or at least Tryg thought so. The man’s skin still looked damp and glistened in the light, and it was reddened around and under the collar. His eyes were wide and his face pale, and his gaze was fixed on the gun Tryg was holding.
Tryg put it away. It was obvious this man wasn’t a danger for him, but that didn’t mean everything was okay. Now that someone knew he was there, he had to leave and come back later. There was no way out of it. This man, whoever he was, might be about to raise the alarm, and Tryg couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t want to hurt this man, though. He hadn’t done anything to him, and while Tryg had no idea what he was doing there, he could take a guess, and he didn’t think he’d be too far off.
The man opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Tryg heard voices coming closer. In his surprise at finding someone in the bedroom, Tryg hadn’t realized Galveston was home. He and the man looked at each other. Tryg didn’t know if the man was going to give him away, but at this point, he wasn’t going anywhere. He was there, and so was Galveston. He’d be sorry if he had to kill someone else, too, but if it was needed, then it would happen. He’d only leave this house with Galveston dead. He couldn’t be in sight when Galveston walked in, though, so he moved toward the door, planning to shift into smoke and hide behind it when Galveston came in.
A small hand grabbed Tryg’s wrist. He almost snatched it away, but he managed to curb that instinct and turned to look down at the man. There was fear in his dark eyes, and he clung to Tryg’s arm. “Please. Take me with you. Please.”
“I can’t—”
“Please. I’ll do whatever you want me to do. Anything. But you have to take me away.”
Tryg understood where the man was coming from, but it wasn’t something he could do. He was about to say that when the door handle turned. Tryg and the man stared at each other for a second, then Tryg had to shift into his smoke form.
The man’s eyes went even wider—Tryg hadn’t thought that was possible—and he took a step back just as the door opened.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Recently, author Doris O'Connor lost her battle with cancer. A group of authors across the literary spectrum came together to create an anthology that would benefit Doris' family after their tragic loss.

I did not know Doris well, but in the few interactions we'd had over the years, she had seemed quite kind. I wish her family peace and healing.

Note: Included in this anthology are both MF and MM authors...

Title:Passion, Pleasure, Pain: An anthology of Dominance and submission

In each other they found the piece of themselves they hadn't even realized was missing.

This D/s anthology was put together by writers who hold author, Doris O'Connor, near and dear to their hearts because the genre is one that was near and dear to Doris as an author. #F*ckCancer #WeLoveDoris

My entire life is one bold-faced, fucking lie. Son of Victor Laurent and sole heir to the entire Laurent fortune built up from a few great grandfathers back in the Civil War times, I’ve been raised—groomed—to be the perfect Southern gentleman. Proper and full of self-control, a man who can keep hold on the vices that help me live my daily life of pure, fucking drudgery.

I know what it means to be controlling not just of myself but of the woman who will one day kneel at my feet. The one who belongs to me, however, is promised to another—and claiming what is mine could cost me everything.

Author Bio:

Lynn Burke is a full time mother, voracious gardener, and scribbler of spicy romance stories. A country bumpkin turned Bay Stater, she enjoys her chowdah and Dunkin Donuts when not trying to escape the reality of city life.

Alixandre Chastain enjoys the darker side of Paris. A Libertine by trade, no flesh is barred from his roaming hands, no matter what lay betwixt their legs. Except when news of his lustful ways reaches his God-fearing parents, they strip him of title and cast him out. Alixandre’s now adrift and with an uncertain future, but an interesting proposition by Comte Phelipe Richelien promises to replace everything he lost with a new world of decadent pleasure like no other. But can Alixandre submit to his new Master? And will his guarded heart be laid bare by one spoken word—Alabaster.

Author Bio:

Kastil Eavenshade is multi-published author pandering her romantic shenanigans. When not catering to the whims of three rescued kitties, she’s dreaming up her next heart-beating tale. No period in history–past, present, or future–is safe from the clutches of her muse.

Her passions beyond writing are drawing, cooking, and watching Pittsburgh Penguins hockey. She credits her parents for her free spirit as they’ve always supported her in every aspect of her life. Without them, she wouldn’t be here. She finds pleasure in writing anything from fantasy to romance-which sometimes parallel each other.

Camilla Maria Campanelli. I’d caught glimpses of the woman when she popped into my Manhattan gallery—there to collect a commission for the paintings we sold for her. So let’s just say I never expected the wet-dream version of Camilla to sashay into Indigo House, an exclusive member’s only club that catered to very specific clientele with extremely particular desires.

Camilla

The night I stepped out on my balcony, I hadn’t intended to be a voyeur though I ended up being one. And what shocked me even more than my uncharacteristic behavior? I’d actually been aroused watching two strangers get their kink on. But I wasn’t into D/s. I’d never even read those Fifty Shades books all my sisters went on and on about.

So why was I affected?

I needed some real, solid answers. And there was only one way to do that.

Author Bio:

London Saint James has lived in many places but never felt “at home” until she met the real-life man of her dreams and settled down in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. London lives with her husband and their fat cat who thinks he owns them.

As an award-winning, international bestselling author, London is living her childhood dream. She knew all the scribbling she did, that big imagination of hers, and all those clamoring characters running around in her head would pay off someday.

Barry Reid never imagined becoming friends with three Doms and their subs would change his life so dramatically. When he settled into marriage and family life with his wife, Meg, he set aside his dominant tendencies, happy to lead a vanilla life. With Meg’s newfound interest in BDSM it’s up to Barry to connect with his inner Dom and figure out how they can make the lifestyle work for them—even if it’s only in the bedroom.

Author Bio:

Jan Graham is an author of Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense. Her stories contain erotic elements, with some including elements of BDSM. She has numerous published titles to her credit, with more to come once she overcomes her current bout of procrastination. Jan lives in Newcastle, Australia where she writes, reads, feeds her Netflix addiction and drinks coffee with friends.

For those who enjoy labels and tags, as well as being an author, Jan is a submissive, an aunt, dyslexic, a lover of all things tempting and naughty (including chocolate), a participant in the BDSM community, a widow, an orphan, and sometimes a wild child.

In short, she is generally a bit of an eccentric who lives her life slightly left of center. You can find out more about Jan and her work by visiting the following links.

Wealthy, charismatic, influential and damn near immortal, Lukan Løvensgård looks like natural Dom material, and in fact he has never, but never submitted to anyone in his long life. But among all the bizarre and fantastic people roaming the far planet of Cydonia, there is one who stole his old, cold heart.

Her love comes at a price. Complete surrender.

With her impressive presence and unusual equipment, Helenay is the hottest and trendiest professional Domme in Neu Venedig and she hardly has the time to top for pleasure these days. But she knows what her old friend Lukan needs, something he never suspected. Release from power.

Author Bio:

I have entered that age when looking at beautiful male models in their prime probably makes me a cougar, ahem.

Almost all my heroines are short: that’s because I look at the world from hobbit level. Being so small I am three times more concentrated (read: obsessive) than anybody I know. I am exhaustingly creative in writing, arts, crafts... Sometimes my brain gets friction burns from hurtling at such speed from one universe to the next.

I love animals, plants, and occasionally even people.

Like Highlander I come from a lot of different places. I was born in Italy but lived here and there and consider myself simply and deeply European. I love Europe passionately, its antiquity, its diversity, its quirkiness. All my books are set in Europe, or alternate versions of it.

Major Oliver Cantor, newly back from the continent, has always wanted Deborah. However she is an innocent. A lady who has no idea just what Oliver wants, needs and desired.

Or does she?

She knows he is dominant and wants someone to be his submissive.

She also knows it should be her.

Now all she has to do is persuade him of that fact.

You’d think it would be easy, but…

Author Bio:

Raven lives in Scotland, along with her husband and their two cats—their children having flown the nest—surrounded by beautiful scenery, which inspires a lot of the settings in her books.

She is used to sharing her life with the occasional deer, red squirrel, and lost tourist, to say nothing of the scourge of Scotland—the midge.

Her very understanding, and long-suffering DH, is used to his questions unanswered, the dust bunnies greeting him as he walks through the door, and rescuing burned offerings from the Aga. (And passing her a glass of wine as she types furiously.)

Charlie has never been in love because he’s never believed in happily ever after. He prides himself on being a good friend and a good Dom, and that’s always been enough for him, except lately nothing feels right. He doesn’t know if he’s having a mid-life crisis or what, but his best friend suddenly looks hot as hell, and nothing about that is normal.

Ryan’s straight friend Charlie has always had his back: when he came out, when he got married, and when his husband died. He’d do anything for the guy he’s been secretly in love with forever. So when Charlie suddenly proposes a spanking scene under the guise of “relaxing” him, he almost runs the opposite direction. Except, what if this is his one chance to finally show Charlie what real love feels like?

Author Bio:

Erin M. Leaf is a romance novel devotee, the steamier the better, with a specialty in edgy erotic tension.

Ex-boxer Mike Logan struggles to put a brutal past behind and make ends meet as a bus driver. When a young runaway settles for an all-night ride, he seizes the chance to do a good deed—get her home safely. But first, they’ll drive around and talk.

What he doesn’t anticipate is that this broken night angel is also a sexy little minx needing a lot more…and not just the gentle kind.

Author Bio:

Award-winning author Lea Bronsen likes her reads hot, fast, and edgy, and strives to give her own stories the same intensity. After venturing into dirty inner-city crime drama with her debut novel Wild Hearted, she divides her writing time between psychological thriller, romantic suspense, historical romance, and dark erotic romance.

As chief of staff to the governor of Florida, Carter has a well-deserved rep as a bastard extraordinaire. But when he’s dealing with two governors for the price of one on Christmas Eve, will the Master find himself outmatched and outmaneuvered by his wily political pets?

Note: This standalone short story takes place after Chief (Governor Trilogy 3) and can be read as a standalone independent from the trilogy.

Author Bio:

Author Lesli Richardson, who is better-known by her more prolific wild-child Tymber Dalton pen name, lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her husband (aka “The World’s Best Husband™”) and too many pets. She writes a wide variety of heat levels and genres, from mainstream sci-fi all the way to scorching ménage.

The two-time EPIC award winner and part-time Viking shield-maiden in training loves to shoot skeet and play D&D with her friends. She’s also the bestselling author of over one hundred and fifty books and counting, including The Reluctant Dom, the Governor Trilogy, the Suncoast Society series, the Love Slave for Two series, the Triple Trouble series, and many others.

She lives in her own little world, but it’s okay—they all know her there.

Mallory Brown doesn't go home with strangers, and while she's all for a great spanking, she doesn't do BDSM relationships. Fantasizing is more her speed. And when she catches a glimpse of Master Murphy, fantasies fill her brain.

But Master Murphy has other plans. He enters her life full-steam and won't take no for an answer. While she's compelled to say yes, is she really ready to say goodbye to her world as she knows it to become permanently entwined with His?

Author Bio:

Ely Valey is a writer of sizzling, sexy romance who firmly believes in happy ever after. From paranormal to contemporary, fantasy, or historical, she enjoys exploring her characters' darker side and writing stories about tortured heroes, strong heroines, and all that comes between them and their love.

When she's not writing, she can be found walking in the Spanish countryside with her black Lab and Golden Retriever mix, exploring castles, or enjoying some tapas with her friends and family.

Cain Silvers is the Captain of one of the nation’s best Hotshot fire fighter groups there is, and his world has turned upside-down when his best friend’s kid sister, Chloe Crowley joins the team. Chloe has always made him uneasy with her attraction to him, something he refused to act on because of who she was and how innocent she is.

Chloe wants to make a difference in the world, and following her passion to become one of the few females in an all-male industry is just the start. She’s set on proving herself to her team, but still follows her own rules, ones that could get her into a lot of trouble.

Passion collides with desire in their story, leading up to actions that could burn everybody.

Author Bio:

DC Stone has over sixteen years of investigative experience, including working as a criminal investigator in the United States military. She currently works as an internal affairs investigation manager by day and a romantic suspense author by night. She has her Master’s degree in Criminal Justice and is dubbed, “The Investigative Whisper.” She provides numerous workshops that help authors gain insight into “digging” into a character’s mind to better understand motives, create suspense, and help maintain conflict.

When she isn’t trying to solve a new puzzle in the world of fraud, she is engulfed with coffee, her laptop, and all those crazy characters in her head. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America, New Jersey Romance Writers, RomVets, RWA Kiss of Death, and the Liberty State Fiction Writers. She served as the 2014 Vice President and Conference Chair for NJRW. Find her at the following stops:Facebook PAGE,Facebook PROFILE,Twitter, and herWebsite.